Cowgirls knock off Longhorns women’s tennis in semifinals

The Longhorns failed to advance to a third consecutive Big 12 tournament championship after they lost to Oklahoma State 4-1 in Saturday’s semifinals.

The loss eliminated Texas (12-12) from qualification for an automatic bid to the NCAA Championship.

No. 15 Breaunna Addison netted the Longhorns’ lone point. With Texas down 3-0 the sophomore avoided a third set against No. 44 Viktoriya Lushkova, winning 6-2, 7-6 (5). Addison wrapped up the conference season undefeated at 10-0.

Texas had two singles matches suspended while leading in the third set. The Cowgirls’ Maria Alvarez quickly handled junior Lina Padegimaite in a third-set tiebreaker 6-1, clinching the match and advancing Oklahoma State to the finals. Had the set been closer, senior Elizabeth Begley and freshman Neda Koprcina could have closed out their matches to keep Texas alive.

The NCAA Championship committee will announce the 64-team field Tuesday afternoon. The tournament begins May 9.

—Chris Caraveo

Oklahoma defeats Texas men’s tennis in Big 12 Championship semifinals

Though Texas headed into the Big 12 Men’s Championship ranked No. 2, the team fell 4-0 to No. 3 Oklahoma in the semifinals. The match took place Saturday in Fort Worth at the Friedman Tennis Center.

The Longhorns, along with Baylor and Oklahoma, shared the Big 12 regular season title this year. But after defeating TCU 4-2 on Friday in the Big 12 quarterfinals, the Sooners carried over their winning streak to the next day.

Junior Lloyd Glasspool, who plays 1- and 2-seed singles regularly, did not compete in singles during the match because of illness, resulting in major changes in the lineup.

Although the team lost 4-0, Longhorns appeared in all three of the last matches that didn’t finish. 

The Longhorns now await the announcement of their seeding in the NCAA Championship, which will begin May 9.

—Brianna Holt

Longhorn track and field dominate relays on national stage at Penn Relays

The Longhorns wrapped up competition at the three-day Penn Relays, where Texas got a chance to compare itself to some of the top teams in the nation.

“This meet is about beating people and making finals,” head coach Mario Sategna said. “This is a good experience for us before the conference and national meets.”

Friday’s action included strong performances across the board for the No. 3 Longhorn women sprinters. In the 4×100-meter relay final, junior Morgan Snow, sophomore Courtney Okolo, sophomore Morolake Akinosun and junior Ashley Spencer finished fourth at 43.95.

Saturday, the Longhorns’ 4×400-meter relay team showed the speed of a national championship contender. Senior Briana Nelson, Okolo, freshman Kendall Baisden and Spencer followed up their solid prelim performances with a blistering performance in the final. Texas thrashed No. 4 Oregon by nearly five seconds for an easy first-place finish and the fourth-best time in collegiate
history. 

The No. 15 men got off to a good start. Thursday saw graduate student Navy transfer Chris Galvin finish first in the 10,000 meters with a time of 29:34.31, beating his personal best. Galvin beat out a field of 40 competitors for the victory.

More success followed Saturday, when the men’s 4×400-meter team finished second at 3:05.13, besting its season-best time for the second time in as many days. The young team of freshmen Chris Irvin, Andrew Whyte and Senoj-Jay Givans, along with sophomore Zack Bilderback, hopes its time, which ranks 10th best in the nation for the year, will make the NCAA West qualifying meet.

The regular season wraps up at home next weekend at Saturday’s Longhorn Invitational, the final meet before the Big 12 Championships.

—Daniel Clay and Grant Gordon